I think the only way you know for sure about scores received is to call Admissions. No, the pronoun thing is not a big deal. Diversity and Acceptance is, so students are called what they want to be called and referred to, but day to day this is not a huge issue.
My starstruck child is interested in Pomona, on the theory that it’s not too far away from Hollywood and he thinks he can sneak off of campus to audition for movies.
How easy is it to get to LA and back from campus without a vehicle?
We aren’t going to be able to afford a visit to southern California, so going to campus in person is not going to happen. My kid is trans, studious, dramatic, outgoing, madly into late Victorian literature. Would he find friends?
There’s a train stop that is virtually on the campus. Overall, it’s easy to get to LA and back and then there is always uber. It might be a great place. There are budding actors at Pomona for sure.
@wrenwu yes, admissions can inform you about which scores they’ve received. They upload all of them to their portal.
@prodesse not a big deal IMO. Usually when you’re introducing yourself in a large crowd, say in a class or in your first-year group, people might go around adding their preferred gender profile. You don’t have to do so if you don’t want to. There are some transgender/gender-binary/questioning members of the community to whom it’s an important topic, so you just want to be mindful of their preferences in order to best support them.
@ninakatarina I think your child sounds perfect for Pomona =) There’s a place for all sorts of interesting, dynamic, motivated people here, which he certainly seems to be.
Getting to LA is straightforward. There are two methods for those without cars. As preppedparent stated, there’s a train pretty much next to campus which will get you in downtown LA in an hour. The problem is that it only runs every hour and stops running at late night (10 PM-6 AM), so you have to be mindful of the schedule (which, to its credit, it abides by). The other method is going to a nearby bus stop (1.4 miles from campus) which goes to the same place. It runs 24/7 every hour so if you miss the train it’s an option to get home; it’s much cheaper than the train too, but the drawback is that it takes nearly double the time.
If you buy a train ticket, it works as an all-day transportation pass for LA’s various bus/rail systems (for instance, once you arrive at Downtown, take a line to Hollywood or take another to Santa Monica).
A lot of people have cars so you can always find someone to hop on with. The media guild/studio 47 group consists of many passionate people who intern in LA so they might be open to taking someone with similar goals/interests as them. Pomona has a coach bus which takes students to places around the area, usually considerably subsidized (for instance, $20 tickets to Disneyland- they normally cost $100). The outdoors club consists of many with cars who are happy to take students to experience the natural beauty of the area. In any case, LA/SoCal is a big part of the experience these days for most students.
Uber to LA is rather expensive unless you’re sharing the cost with others. Zip car is yet another option.
@nostalgicwisdom sorry if this is a stupid question, but where is the pomona portal? I havent looked into the portals of other schools yet but apparently its an app management system? havent found pomonas yet, theree’s one for students and faculty though which i did find, but nothing for applicants
also, how is the dorm situation at pomona? i heard its easy to get a single and most freshman do? I really want to meal prep in college, but i guess the dorms dont have a kitchen or anything like that?
It’s a profile they make for every student who applies. Only the admission office staff can view it- hence the advice for the above poster to reach out to them to see if a specific score was received. They do give you a materials checklist where you can see what’s missing. I think you get an email to access that sometime after the app deadline.
About 70% of rooms at Pomona are single bedrooms (including two room doubles and suites w/ common areas). First years are less likely to get singles- about 30-35% of all first year rooms are singles. For upperclassmen, housing is based off a room-draw process ordered by seniority. Seniors pick first, then juniors, then sophomores. In essence, housing gets better each year since the seniors can get access to the newest dorms and other really nice rooms. First years are assigned through a housing form where they list their preferences.
If I’m counting correctly, there are 17 kitchens with a stove top/oven scattered throughout the dorms. You have access to all of them 24/7. The new dorm kitchens are awesome. Most academic buildings have a mini kitchen area too with a refrigerator, microwave, toaster oven, etc. There are shelves/cupboards which you can store things in, and people use locks to ensure their things don’t get used without permission. . Most people eat with the on-campus meal plan so they are available pretty readily.
My Pomona D requested a single for freshman year but was placed in a double in Mudd (a dorm at Pomona, not Harvey Mudd). It was cramped but had A/C and she got along fine with her roommate. In her sophomore year she had a mediocre lottery number and went into “deferred” housing status which means she didn’t get her assignment until about a week before school started. She did get a single, which was a super small un-airconditioned single in Harwood, but it was right next to a kitchen. She used the kitchen to fix breakfast and snacks. The only downside of being next to the kitchen was that people would repeatedly forget to turn off the oven and the heat would radiate into her already hot room. I’m not sure I agree with @nostalgicwisdom that dorms necessarily get better each year, because a lot of freshmen luck into nice spacious singles but then get a bad or mediocre lottery number for sophomore year and get a worse location. When D was a sophomore, she had freshman living by her in much larger, nicer rooms. So YMMV.
But the dining room food at the 5C’s is unusually good, with lots of options due to the ability to eat at 7 dining halls with different menus. https://aspc.pomona.edu/menu/. My D is now a junior and spending this semester at Swarthmore through a “domestic exchange” program. She feels her Swat dorm room is better but the Swat food is definitely inferior to the 5C’s.
I agree that sophomore year room draw has the potential to give the worst housing due to the more desirable rooms getting pulled by juniors/seniors and the wait for deferred housing. But there are ways to circumvent it. Oldenborg is a great dorm- all singles, air conditioned, spacious, private bathroom- and about a third of sophomores live there. If you’re a sponsor or RA, you get a guaranteed single. Some are huge (for instance, Lyon is all doubles except for the sponsors room, who get the size of a double to themselves) and some like those in Mudd/Blaisdell can come with a private bathroom. If you request a substance free hall, you have an excellent chance of getting a room in Clark 3/Nortorn, which is pretty nice.
In any case, your daughter should get a nice room some time soon! For the three years of room draw, you get a number in the top third, middle third, and last third. If your daughter got deferred she was probably in the last third as a sophomore, so she’ll be in the middle third/top third in junior & senior year. From experience, anyone in that group got their choice of some of Pomona’s nicest dorms or rooms.
Now that I think about it, I think it wasn’t that she got a bottom third lottery number, but more the bubble caused by the over-enrolled class above her. I wonder what happens for spring semester when she comes back from Swat. Obviously they have spaces for students returning from a semester away, but she doesn’t know what to expect in terms of where she’ll end up.
She is under the “study abroad” group so she’ll probably get a room in Walker, Clark 1, or Clark 3. That’s where they put the juniors who return from study abroad- in the rooms where the juniors going for the spring had stayed for the fall. Clark 5 and the new dorms are virtually all seniors. Did she fill this out? https://www.pomona.edu/sites/default/files/housing-form.pdf
I"ll ask her. Are the rooms you’re talking about singles or doubles, or a mix?
Clark 3 and Walker are mostly singles. Clark 1 is two room doubles (each person gets their own room but entrances/bathrooms are shared)
There’s Lawry too, mostly singles.
@nostalgicwisdom thank you so much for answering! I completely forgot my most pressing question. pomona is so confusing about their interviews!!! on their common data set, it lists interviews as important, but on their website, they say that the alumni interviews are completely optional. they also said that they do not track demonstrated.
"Since Pomona does not track demonstrated interest in the admissions process, interviewing is purely optional and is aimed at connecting you with a graduate of Pomona who can give you more insight into the College and answer any questions you might have. "
then it says under international applicants:
"International Student Interviews
Although interviews are not required, international students may choose to arrange either an alumni interview (limited availability) or one with a private service that conducts and records interviews. Please be aware that there may be a cost for third-party services.
The conversation will be reviewed by the Admissions Office, NOT by the interviewing service.
If you already scheduled an alumni interview, you may not submit a third-party interview.
If you’re attending high school in the United States, please schedule an (optional) alumni interview."
what do they mean now?? are there 2 different interviews? one that’s an alumni and one that’s the “real” one? is the real one only for internationals? Did I just screw myself over by not requesting an interview? I didn’t want to request an interview since Pomona stated it was for question asking and “purely” optional and I already made up my mind about ED1 to Pomona!! The deadline is tomorrow to request an interview so I’m stressed out now. Do you have any insight on this messy issue?
Hey, man. Don’t stress it. I am an international student and I talked to my regional officer in a fair a bit ago. They said international interviews are only for YOUR interest: to learn more about Pomona and asking questions. They do not affect the admission process. Good luck! I am applying ED I too 
Pomona no longer offers on-campus interviews so my guess is they have lost their importance. You really don’t need to worry too much if you didn’t get one.
If you are in the US, you can ask for an alumni interview and if there’s someone near your area they might be able to talk to you. If you are an international student, Pomona offers interviews through Initial View. These are not conducted by Pomona officers and they cannot answer your Pomona-specific questions, but the admissions office will get to view the conversation and assess you from it. It’s extremely costly so it’s definitely not required, but it’s an option for international students who want to have an interview added to their file.
Admissions is definitely sending mixed messages about interviews. While one part of the website seems to imply that they are now only informational, the sign-up form says “you can expect questions about your time in and out of the classroom and about your college search process” - which sounds a bit more serious. Plus, during an info session late this summer the adcom said that while they are optional and are not being offered on campus, they are still recommended because they can help the student provide information that might not come across well on their application. He said they made the change in part to “level the playing field” for all applicants, or something like that. My youngest hasn’t scheduled a Pomona interview, but I’ll report back if that changes.
How good is Pomona’s cognitive science program? I’m looking for schools with a good computer science program in general but cognitive science and linguistics both seem interesting as more interdisciplinary paths.
Excellent. Great, dedicated professors, tons of research opportunities, modern facility, right next to the computer science department for easy collaboration. You can also take linguistics through Pitzer College which is one of their strengths and expands the curriculum considerably. I have only heard fabulous things about the department and linguistics from my friends. It’s one of the more popular tracks too- more popular than it is at most colleges.